Looks like a common FDC from Sri Lanka (Ceylon). The stamp looks like Sc.528 (Michel 477),issued on Feb.4th,1978, commemorating the election of a new president. However on a closer look,one can see an overprint on the right side: 1978.09.07 As the text on the envelope indicates,that is the date of the promulgation of the new constitution. Listed by Michel as no.482 the stamp was sold affixed on FDC´s only. It was not sold otherwise and so could not be used for postage, although it was a valid postage stamp,because it was cancelled already .
You could note use the above stamp for postage,unless you found a cover like this one: One could have taken that stamp from the cover and use it for postage. However I doubt this was ever done,because it would have made out of a rare unused stamp a cancelled one.
I bought this WW II patriotic cover out of curiosity. I had never heard of the Blue Hen's Chicks or their association with Delaware. A search on Google turned up an explanation. Turns out there is a strain of chickens with blue plumage dating back to the Revolutionary War period (1775-1789) that was developed in the colony of Delaware. They were called Blue Hens. These chickens, especially the cocks, were known for their aggressiveness and fighting abilities. During the Revolutionary War, a Delaware regiment was formed that soon distinguished itself in fighting and were dubbed sons of the Blue Hen. This sobriquet evolved into the Blue Hen's Chicks. Note in the cachet that the chicks are in military dress with one in Army attire, one in Navy uniform, and the third dressed as an aviator. The reputation for aggressiveness also extends to people, both men and women, who are excessively temperamental and argumentative and said to have a Blue Hen as a mother. In 1939, the Delaware state legislature officially designated a Blue Hen as the state bird. Donald Buxton, a resident of Dubuque, (address on the back flap) mailed this cover in February 1944. There is no indication he, or the addressee, had any connection to Delaware, so, maybe, one or both of them may have been patriotic cover collectors. I am placing it in my very small WW II patriotic cover collection. Don
Hi Murat: I don't remember for sure. It has been more than five years since I bought that cover. Probably around $5. Don
More than one collecting point on this cover. I was attracted to it for the excellent likeness of the Douglas DC-3 flying over a map of airmail routes in the U.S. Second, it is a first-day cover for Sc. C23, the airmail stamp issued especially for National Air Mail Week, May 15-21, 1938. My Scott catalog lists St. Petersburg as a premium first-day cancel site. Third, it came with an advertising stiffener card from Frederick B. Fitts, proprietor of Cachet Craft Covers. Cachet Craft specialized in first-day covers, and lastly, the cover is sealed with a Cachet Craft label on the reverse. I intend to place this cover in my Aircraft on Covers collection. Don
Except for a few C11s I think this is my only flight cover - of course I still want the Ezra Cole zeppelin on eBay for several years! - https://www.ebay.com/itm/C15-ON-1ST...551911?hash=item281821aca7:g:aTYAAOSwl-FXM~bz I don't know if this is first flight or just New Service; assume the latter. We raised our kids in Steamboat Springs before the town fathers decided they wanted to be like Aspen and Vail...ugh. But in the 80s-90s it was idyllic. (The town got its name from early settlers/explorers who followed a sound that seemed like a steamboat - and found a hot springs.)
A nice period cover documenting the days of rapidly expanding air service to small towns. Regrettably, traffic to and from those towns could not sustain the service. Don
I have been branching out from flight and airport covers to get other unusual airmail covers from the 20's. Here is one from a small town in Arizona celebrating its First "Prosperty" Jubilee. Do you think they needed spellcheck? Did it mean something about real estate? any guesses?
This recent acquisition requires a little background to explain why I acquired it. First, it is a philatelic cover that has been pressed into service as a personal cover three years after its original event. I bought this cover for its Walter Crosby cachet depicting the interior of a flying post office and the photo (Crosby's signature piece) of mail being loaded onto a flying post office. As a former Railway Mail Service substitute distribution clerk, I am interested in the flying post office experiments conducted in 1946. The Post Office Department conducted these experiments in late September and the first week of October of 1946. Covers for these flights are readily available on eBay at low cost. I have, however, only one of them at this time. It is also shown below and depicts a Fairchild Packet (C119 Flying Boxcar) which was used on one of the routes. Here is an internet image of a Fairchild used on one of the demonstration routes: The experiment was not continued as it was quickly discovered that airplanes did not provide the enroute mail sorting efficiency that trains and ships did. The flights were too short in duration to sort much mail and it was difficult for clerks to move around while the aircraft was in flight. All-in-all, a short lived trial. Also shown here is a photo from the National Air & Space museum of PO employees sorting mail while in route on one of the flights. Note the pistol the clerk on the left is wearing. He was undoubtedly the chief clerk and responsible for any registered mail on the flight. Registered mail railway mail clerks were required to be armed while sorting or escorting registered mail at the ends of the runs. Indeed, when I signed on as a Railway Mail Clerk, I was issued a snub nosed .38 special revolver and a box of bullets. I remember wearing it when delivering the registered mail from our mail car to a RMS transfer clerk. Don
Very nice article <DON>; interesting and informative. Thank You. One question: Did they let you keep the piece when you went to work as <THE STAMP DETECTIVE>?
This cover surfaced in the shoe box album recently. It commemorates the Michigan Stamp Club's 40th anniversary and exhibition in Detroit on February 27 and 28, 1954. I vaguely remember buying it years ago for the cachet which is a take off on a favorite stamp series from the Sudan. The design first appeared in 1897 and was repeated with minor variations in 1921-22, and 1948. Shown to the right of the cover image is an example of the 4 piasters from the 1948 set, Sc. 88, the basic design of which served as a model. The cover came with some collateral material, a program and a list of exhibitors for the exhibition. The club also overprinted stamps to commemorate the anniversary as on the franking of the cover. The overprint reads Michigan Stamp Club/40th Anniversary. It's time to get the cover out of the shoe box and put it in my Philatelic Event Cover collection. Don
Somewhat of a "plain Jane" cover, but it has two collecting points that make it worth acquiring, at least for me. First, it is a first-day cover for Sc C10, the Lindbergh commemorative which according to the Scott U.S. Specialized catalog was issued June 18, 1927, at three locations, Detroit, Michigan, being one. The other two first-day cities were St. Louis, Missouri, and Little, Falls, Minnesota. The second collecting point is pretty much peculiar to me and that is the different and unusual airmail designator at lower left. It is for this point that I collected the cover and it is headed for my One-of-a-Kind airmail borders collection. Don
Looks like a stationery and possibly is one,although not for sale. Printed cancel,without date. Just wonder what the real meaning behind the words is, printed below GOGREEN: "Klimaneutraler Versand mit der Deutschen Post". Translated it would be: Climat neutral shipment by the German Post. As you can see,using english words is in mode in Germany.Hundred years ago it were french words.
Interesting! They may have to go back to French. With the uber political correctness now, there's less-and-less you can say in English!
If I were to characterize this cover I would call it A Sign of the Times, or a Harbinger of the Future. I just finished writing up this cover and getting it into an album. It is an addition to a small collecting sideline, first or inaugural passenger train trips. Not an exciting cover, but one that caught my interest because of its inherent irony. It commemorates the first trip of a new passenger train on the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railroad running between San Francisco & Chicago. It was posted June 6, 1954. I'm not much of a railroad historian, but this must have been one of the last "new" trains to be added by the major railroads. Unfortunately for the railroads, the 1950s saw the continuation of an endless downward trend in passenger revenue as more and more travelers used airlines for longer trips. The irony I mentioned lies in the fact that the "new" train was sure to fail economically with the beginning of coast to coast jet service in 1958, and in posting the cover as airmail when this train would have certainly included a Railway Post Office. Don
I've been writing up covers and this #10 first-flight airmail cover on the Kemp Hotel stationery in Wichita Falls, TX, is a recent acquisition. I am indexing and placing this cover in my album under the heading of Birdseye View Covers Not really a sideline collection yet, but I have a few of these. I buy them if reasonably priced, which they rarely are. This cover has a nice view of Wichita Falls, Texas. An unusual application on hotel stationery. Perhaps, the manager was a collector?? This one came relatively cheap, probably, because of the crease in the middle. It is also a first-flight cover for AM 33. No info on the addressee. Wichita Falls has used the motto "The City that Faith Built" since the early 1920s. It supposedly comes from the faith displayed by residents to built a city from a small town on the Wichita River in an area not noted for livability or rich in resources. At the time of its founding circa 1876, there was a small waterfall on the Wichita River, but it eroded away during a flood. Don